USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -A number of factors fueled migration west. Trappers, settlers, and miners headed West from the eastern United States prior to the Civil War. The Homestead Act, passed in 1862, allowed settlers to claim 160 acres of land for free.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark set out on a two-year journey to document the newly purchased Louisiana Territory. On the way to the Pacific, they collected information on plants, animals, and about some of the Native American nations living in the area.

Detailed explanation-3: -The acquisition of Hawaii and Alaska in the mid-19th century assured westward expansion would continue into the 20th century. The great losers in this westward wave were the Native American tribes. Displaced as new settlers moved in, they lost their traditional way of life and were relegated to reservations.

Detailed explanation-4: -The first white Americans to move west were the mountain men, who went to the Rockies to hunt beaver, bear and elk in the 1820s and 1830s. Then, in 1841, a wagon train pioneered the 3, 200km-long Oregon Trail to the woodland areas of the north-west coast of America.